Have you ever wondered what plan God has in store for you? Why you were born into your particular birth family? Why you went to this school and not another? Married this spouse, and not another? Did you ever take a moment to ask God, “are you serious?”.

My name is Sister Christine De Anna, O.P., or simply “Sister Chris”. I was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and am the eldest of two daughters. My father’s parents immigrated from Italy just before World War II, and my mother’s grandparents came over the from the Ukraine and Hungary. I did not ask to be born into such a family. But God knew I needed them, as much as they needed me.

The practice of going to Church on Sundays was instilled from the moment I was born. The Sacraments were something I received “at the proper time”. Receiving them was not really a “choice” for me, but it was for my parents'. It is only after I started college at SLU that I began to see more clearly the choice I was being given. It was in the dorm where I wanted to go to Mass, where I began to see the Eucharist as true gift, where I wanted to grow in my relationship with the God I was just beginning to know.

Thomas Merton once wrote, “ My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. 
I do not see the road ahead of me
nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will
 does not mean that I am actually doing so.”

Thinking back to where I have lived, the people I have known, and the education I have been blessed to receive, I cannot imagine they weren’t part of the Plan. At the time I came to SLU, if someone told me how long I would spend in college, or all the States where I would live, I would say to them, “are you serious?”.

I had no idea where I was going. The road ahead of me was to take me back to London, Ontario after I graduated in 1990. But who I was when I graduated was not the same person I was as a freshman. Although the discernment I experienced felt like I was following God’s will, I wondered.

A Dominican Sister of San Rafael, California, once told me that God doesn’t sit around waiting for you (me) to make a choice, and then shake in disbelief that you (I) could make such a choice . “ But I believe that the desire to please You
 does in fact please You and I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.”

My grandparents did not have to come to Canada to begin their new life, but it felt “right” that they be together, and the gentle prodding of my great-grandmother was all her daughter needed to follow the man (my grandfather) in marriage. My mother is a loving, compassionate nurse (retired) who has been an example for me of what it means to be family. And my sister is a strong woman who is an example for me of what it means to speak your truth.

We are companions on a journey. We are example for each other, to support one another in good times and bad. God has created us not for ourselves, but for others; not for personal gain, but for giving of ourselves while being changed in the process.